Cigarette lighter assembly



D United States Patent 13,s4s,150

[72] Inventor Thomas P. Briggs 2,554,743 5/1951 Jones 219/267X 927Woodlawn, Royal Oak, Mich. 48073 2,612,588 9/ 1952 Schilling 219/262[21] Appl. No. 820,789 2,630,539 3/1953 Sinko et a1. 219/267X [22] FiledMay 1,1969 3,433,928 3/1969 l-lorwitt 219/267 [45] Patented Dec. 15,1970 3,471,679 10/1969 Ohnborn 219/267X Primary Examiner-Velodymyr Y.Mayewsky 54] CIGARETTE LIGHTER ASSEMBLY Attorney-Harness, Dickey &Pierce 1 Claim, 2 Drawing Figs. [52] use Cl. 219/267, 219/265, 219/479[51] Int. Cl F23g 7/22 [50] Field of Search 219/267, ABSTRACT: Acigarette lighter assembly mounted on an ac- 2 2 cessible wall of ahousehold stove and including, a hand 476-480 removable and insertablecigarette lighter in a lighter socket and an electrically insulatedmounting plate for mounting the [561 lighter assembly to the accessiblewall. The lighter being UNITED STATES PATENTS removable from the socketthrough the concentric openings in 2,5] 1,331 6/1950 De La Mater 219/261the accessible all and the mounting plate.

1 CIGARETTE LIGHTER ASSEMBLY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION often oftenThis invention broadly relates to a cigarette lighter assembly for usein combination with the control panel of a household stove. In the past,common household stoves of the gas or electric variety have normallybeen provided with, for example, four burners mounted on the top portionof the stove. As is known, people in the household having such a stoveoften use it for lighting cigarettes, cigars or the'like, when commonmatches or other cigarettelighters are either not available orinconvenient to reach at the precise moment it is desired to indulge inthe smoking habit. In such a situation smokers have often been prone touse one of the burners of the stove for lighting the cigarette, and sucha use of the stove burner is, of course, extremely dangerous in that inorder to light the cigarette, cigar, etc. with the stove burner, it isnecessary to bend over and place the face very close to the burnerduring the cigarette lighting. As a result, singed eyebrows, burnt hairand the like often result from using the conventional stove burner tolight a cigarette. In the invention disclosed hereinbelow this problemis overcome in that the development has been made to the effect that acigarette lighter of the type extremely popular in automobiles has beenuniquely adapted for use on the control panel of a stove to make use ofthe normal electric current which is provided to-the chassis of thestove such that the cigarette lighter mounted on the stove control panelcan be used to light a cigarette at anytime, without the need to makeuse of the dangerous habit of bending over to light the cigarette from astove burner when other lighting techniques such as matches, pocketlighters, etc. are not available.

Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to provide incombination with a household stove a cigarette lighter assembly mountedon the control panel of said stove.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent from the subsequent description and the appended claimstaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates a conventionalhousehold stove modified in accordance with this invention; and

FIG. 2 illustrates a cross-sectional view taken along the line of 2-2 ofFIG. 1 showing the particulars of the'cigarette lighter assembly asmounted on the panel of the stove of FIG. 1.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly stated, this invention involves incombination with a household stove apparatus comprised of a base, afront panel, side panels, a plurality of stove burners, and generallytopmounted control panel means for utilizing one or more of the burnersin a cooking operation, the improvement comprising a cigarette lighterassembly mounted generally proximate said control panel means andincluding a hand removable and insertable cigarette lighter, a springwhich normally biases said lighter out of contact with a thermal Contactheating means for heating the lighter to an approximate predeterminedtemperature at which the lighter disengages and is ready for operativeuse, insulated electrical connector means for resistance heating saidthermal contact means, said connector means being operatively associatedwith an electrical power source wire means mounted within the stove forappropriately providing electric current to the thermal contact meanswhen the lighter is pressed into engagement therewith.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings showa household stove which has incorporated therein a cigarette lighterassembly as indicated by the cross-sectional or cutaway v-iew in FIG. 2.The stove is generally designated and is comprised of side panels 12,front panel 14, and a top deck or table portion 16 in which there aremounted several burners designated 18. The stove also includes a controlpanel 19 which has mounted or constructed into the right end portionthereof a cigarette lighter assembly designated 20.

The cigarette lighter assembly 20 is comprised of a lighter 22 which isremovable or insertable into the lighter socket 24. The lighter 22 hasconcentrically, and axially arranged thereabout a spring 26 whichnormally biases the lighter such that it remains out of contact with athermal contact heating means 28. The thermal contact heating means 28is electrically connected with a terminal post 30 which has at one endthereof a threaded nut 32 which may satisfactorily be used to connect alead wire 34 to the terminal post 30. The post 30 is insulated by theinsulation material designated 36. The insulation 36 acts to insulatethe electrical post 30 from the socket housing 24. A second terminalmeans designated 40 is mounted on the exterior of the socket housing 24and shown attached thereto is another electrical wire 42.

The electrical conductors 34 and 42 are suitably connected through atransformer means (not shown) to a l lOvolt power supply, which iscomprised of two wires (not shown) introduced through the electricalconduit 50. The electrical conduit 50, as shown, is mounted generallyadjacent to the lighter assembly through the use of the housing means52, but it should be understood that the housing means 52 is notnecessary to the practice of the invention.

The housing 52 in turn is mounted to the front control panel 19 throughmeans of screws 54 and nuts 56. The front plate 60 for mounting thelighter assembly to the control panel 19 is held in position by thescrews 62 and nuts 64.

To operate the cigarette lighter 22 it is pushed in until the spring 26is completely depressed, and this in turn brings the sleeve portion 27into firm electrical contact with the metal socket housing 24. Thiscontact between the metal sleeve 27 and the socket housing 24completesthe electrical circuit for heating the lighter. The lighteritself is comprised of a wound resistance heater element positionedwithin the holder member 29. The holder member 29 when the lighter 22 ispressed into engagement is positioned within the elastically engageablereceiver 31 and thus elastically engageable receiver 31 and thiselastically engageable receiver 31 in turn holds the lighter indepressed position while the thermal contact heating means 28 heats thewound resistance heater within the member 29 to an essentially red hottemperature. Once the hot temperature is reached, then the thermalexpansion causes the elastically engageable receiver to expand andrelease the member 29 whereby the biased spring 26 pops the lighter outa relatively small amount and this popping out action is observed by theuser and then the lighter 22 is grasped by the hand and removed from thesocket housing 24 for use in lighting a cigarette, cigar, etc.

While it will be apparent that the preferred embodiments of theinvention disclosed are well calculated to fulfill the objects abovestated, it will be appreciated that the invention is susceptible tomodification, variation and change without departure from the properscope or fair meaning of the subjoined claims.

lclaim:

l. A cigarette lighter assembly mounted on an accessible wall of ahouseholds stove and including, a hand removable and insertablecigarette lighter in a lighter socket a concentrically axially arrangedspring which normally biases said lighter out of contact with a thermalcontact-heating means for heating the lighter to an approximatepredetermined temperature at which the lighter disengages from heatingcontact with an elastically engageable receiver on the heating means,and is ready for operative use, insulated electrical connector meanscomprised of two conductor wires for resistance heating said thermalcontact means, said connector means being operatively connected to anelectrical power source for appropriately providing electric current tothe thermal contact means when the lighter is pressed into engagementtherewith, an electrical conduit means for holding said conductor wires,

housing means generally surrounding said lighter assembly, secondconnector means for connecting the housing means to the accessible wallof the stove, electrically insulated front mounting plate means formounting the lighter assembly to the

